Neon Light Effect Photoshop Tutorial

Today I'm going to show you how to create a vibrant visual effect by adding neon lights to a photo. This popular art style often incorporates simple shapes or text for the neon lights, which are illuminated in bright colours. I'll show you how to use Photoshop to draw a custom shape and give it a vibrant glow with the help of Photoshop's Layer Style options. Then we'll use a clever technique to apply a colourful ambience to the original photo, as if it's been illuminated by the new light source. As a finishing touch we'll also add some smoke and particle effects to create a neat cyberpunk art piece with a futuristic vaporwave style. This style of art works with almost any imagery, but it helps to have a dark scene so the luminance of the neon lights is visible. I'm using this free portrait photo by Harsh Kushwaha from Pexels.com. The original competition is quite tall and narrow, so use the Crop tool to expand the canvas area slightly. Hold the ALT key to extend the sides by an equal amount, then add some extra space to the top too. Photoshop can actually do a pretty good job of filling in this empty space itself. Use the Marquee tool to draw a selection around the empty space on one side, then hold Shift and add the other areas to the selection too. Go to Edit and Fill, then change the dropdown menu to Content Aware. Photoshop should automatically generate a completely new background, but it might make a couple of small mistakes. These can be easily fixed with the Patch tool. Draw around the problem area, then drag to sample the area you want to use instead. Activate the Brush tool and edit the settings to Maximum Hardness. Adjust the size to approximately the diameter you want your neon tube to be. Set the colour to white and scribble a couple of tests to check the line thickness, followed by CMD and Z, or CTRL and Z on Windows to Undo. Select the Pen tool and click three individual points to draw a triangle. Alternatively, you could experiment with other shapes such as circles, custom linework or even text with a mono weight font. Create a new layer, then right click and choose Stroke Path. Make sure the option is set to the Brush tool. The path will be outlined according to the brush settings and size we've already configured. Use the CMD and T shortcut for Transform to adjust the position if necessary. Double click this layer to open the Layer Style options. We'll add a cocktail of effects to create a colourful neon glow. First add a Colour Overlay. Choose a hue for your neon light. Bright pinks, blues, greens and yellows all work well. Add the Inner Glow effect next. Configure the colour to white, then set the Source to Centre. Reset the Choke to zero, then zoom in and carefully adjust the Size value to generate a bright hotspot in the centre of the tube. Change the Contour Profile to the Half Round setting to make the colour change more abrupt. Next add an Outer Glow. Set the colour to a similar hue to your neon tube, which is pink in my example. Set the Blend Mode to Linear Dodge, which will help to generate a bright luminous glow effect. Bring back the Opacity to 100% for now. Adjust the Size value to add a soft haze to the tube, eliminating the hard outline. 60px works for the scale of my document. Reduce the Opacity value to soften the glow slightly, to around 50%. It is impossible to layer up multiple Outer Glow effects, but we can instead reconfigure the Drop Shadow to produce the same kind of effect. Instead of black, set the Shadow colour to your neon colour, with the Blend Mode of Linear Dodge. Reduce the Distance value to zero, then adjust the Size value to a larger ambient glow. If you're working on a large image, chances are you'll have to just max out the slider to 250px. In order to add an even larger glow, we'll have to draw it manually. Select the Brush tool and configure the brush with zero hardness, and a much larger size of around 1000px. Set up the foreground colour with your neon hue, then quickly trace the outline of the neon shape again with the Pen tool. Add a new layer, then right click and choose Stroke Path again. This time the large soft brush will be used. Set the Blending Mode of this layer to Linear Dodge to allow the colour to interact with the background photo. Reduce the Fill value to around 20% to create a more subtle glow. Shift and click both neon layers and use the CMD and G shortcut to create a group. A simple trick that helps to make the neon appear if it's in the scene is to erase a small portion to make it look like it's surrounding the subject. First we need to make a selection of the subject, so activate the Background layer, then go to Select and Subject. Activate the group again, then apply a layer mask. The mask is currently being applied the wrong way around, so use the CMD and I shortcut to invert the mask. This mask makes it look like the neon is now behind the subject, but we want the closest part of the tube to be in front, so grab the Brush tool and paint over this area, making sure you're working with white, not black in the colour picker. A bright neon light would give off quite a colourful glow that would be reflected by the subject. Add a Hue and Saturation adjustment layer, then click the Colourize option. Max out the Saturation slider, then adjust the Hue to find a suitable colour to match your neon. Double click the layer, then in the Blend If settings, hold the ALT key and drag half of the triangle icon towards the centre of the spectrum. This will erase the Hue and Saturation effect from the shadows, so only the highlights are reflecting the pink light. Add a new layer for a couple of finishing touches. Dab two small spots of colour where the neon appears to go behind the subject. Set the blending mode to Linear Dodge and reduce the Fill value to turn these colour spots into subtle luminous glows. Download and install the free smoke brushes I've linked to in the description. Add a new layer above the background, and use the smoke brushes to paint a fog around the artwork. Apply a layer mask to this smoke layer, and begin erasing the smoke by painting within the mask with the same brush. It helps to reduce the Flow value, and don't forget to make sure you're painting with black to erase the areas from the mask. You can fine tune the result further by adjusting the Opacity of the layer to generate just a subtle misting of smoke to help enhance the neon glow. For the ultimate vaporwave look, you can also mix in some other vibrant colours. Add a new layer at the top of the stack, and use a large soft brush to dab some spots of blue, or any other contrasting colour. Set the blending mode to Soft Light, and alter the Opacity settings to add an interesting colour cast. Download my free grain textures from my Spoon Graphics website and open up one of the PNG files. These textures are made from sprinklings of British tea, English Breakfast to be exact, but they're handy for adding grain or particle effects to your artwork. Press CMD and A to Select All, CMD and C to Copy, CMD and W to Close, then in the working document press CMD and V to Paste. Use the CMD and I shortcut to invert the texture to white, then scale and reposition the particles to fill the canvas, with the help of the CMD and T Transform shortcut. Set the blending mode of this layer to Colour Dodge and reduce the Fill value so they're barely visible. Apply a quick Gaussian Blur filter to take the sharp edge off the texture. Then apply a layer mask and dab a few spots here and there to help the particles blend in. The final result is a colourful neon light effect that enhances a photo with an abstract futuristic cyberpunk look. Photoshop's layer styles did a great job of replicating a bright neon light with vibrant glows, but what makes the real difference is the additional colour layers to generate the colourful ambience. If you really love creating neon effects, you might want to check out the Neon Toolbox. It's packed full of resources to help you create custom neon signs, complete with backgrounds and other elements such as bars, grids and wall hooks. Inside there's 95 one-click layer styles of every colour under the sun, plus loads of ready made assets to create a custom scene. Check it out by following the link in the description, where you can pick it up with up to a 50% discount when you buy it along with other Marketplace products. If you enjoyed this tutorial or learnt any new tips and tricks, a thumbs up on the video would be really appreciated. Stick around for more of my content by subscribing to the channel, and be sure to join my mailing list at Spoon Graphics to download all my free design resources. As always thank you very much for watching, and I'll see you in the next one.